Rockies No. 10 prospect leads Fall League contingent with return to the desert

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Playing in the Arizona Fall League two years in a row isn’t typically on a Minor League prospect’s bucket list. But given what transpired for Rockies outfielder Jared Thomas since he played for the Salt River Rafters in 2025, he had no issue with the return engagement. 

“I felt that last year, there's a lot of good prospects that came in and showed their tools off, and me being invited back to play in this again, I'm excited,” said Thomas, the Rockies’ No. 10 prospect. “I’m definitely looking forward to it a lot more this year than I was last year just with the time I was out. It's more baseball also. I missed a lot this year, so I'm excited to play six-seven more weeks.” ​

The trouble for Thomas started when he was here last year. He hit .302/.343/.524 over 17 games, but he did so with a 28/3 K/BB ratio as he played through some left hand soreness. That turned out to be a broken hamate that required surgery. It’s a fairly common procedure with a not-too-lengthy recovery time -- Thomas pointed out that Corbin Carroll only missed four weeks -- offering confidence that the outfielder would be ready to go for Spring Training.

Except that he wasn’t. Thomas received an invite to big league camp, but his hand didn’t feel any better, far past the expected recovery time. His first instinct was to keep playing, but it got to the point at which he was unable to perform. 

“I knew there was something going on in there, and I'm not one of those guys that's going to shy away from something bugging me to keep me off the field," he said. "So just trying to push through it, and then, I knew something was really wrong when ... it doesn't feel good enough to even play.” 

Thomas went back to the hand specialist and it turned out  he had a bone spur on top of a metacarpal bone, leading to a second surgical procedure. 

“Then the clock resets, another six to eight weeks, so it was frustrating,” Thomas admitted. “This is the most I've ever missed when it comes to a baseball season, so you learn a new perspective. Those days early on got dark, the game doesn't stop for you. So that was something I had to learn pretty quickly, with all that time I had off.”

Thomas didn’t get into rehab games until early July and didn’t return to Double-A Hartford, where he finished the 2025 season, until the end of that month. He did swing the bat pretty well at the end of the year, putting him in a much better head space, not to mention feeling like himself physically, ahead of the AFL. 

“It’s not as much live and die anymore,” Thomas said. “The perspective is a little bit different. [Going] 0-for-25 isn't too bad when you think about being at the complex for six months out of the year. So, I think that helped a lot, going back out to Double-A, so I feel like I'm in a good spot.”

That healthy perspective should help him navigate through the Fall League season, regardless of the numbers he puts up. The competitor in him wants to be productive, but he’s happy with just pointing in the right direction after having his progress toward Colorado derailed. 

“It's hard to say that you're not really concerned with the results,” Thomas said. “You've got guys who come out here and play really well, and I want to be one of those guys for sure, but if I can get out of here feeling good, feeling healthy, back to my normal self with all this time off, I feel like I'm in a great spot to go into the offseason and looking forward to next year's camp.”

Rockies hitters in the Fall League

Andy Perez, SS/3B (No. 15): Signed for $300,000 in January 2021, Perez has shown a propensity for contact (15.3 percent career K rate), something that continued with a move to Double-A for the first time in 2026. There hasn’t been a ton of impact, though he racked up 30 doubles with Hartford while primarily playing shortstop and seeing time at third and second as well. He’s Rule 5-eligible for the second time.

Jack O’Dowd, C/1B: After a year of indy ball, O’Dowd signed with Colorado, where his father Dan used to serve as the general manager. He started to stand out more when he continued to rake when he moved to High-A and even with slowing down some at Double-A following his second promotion of the year, he still finished with an impressive .307/.383/.564 line with 23 homers and 91 RBIs. The left-handed hitter split time between catching and first base defensively.

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Rockies pitchers in the Fall League

Konner Eaton, LHP (No. 17): Eaton has displayed good raw stuff since his days at George Mason, but an inability to throw consistent strikes limited his stock and he landed in the sixth round of the 2024 Draft. His command had improved in 2025, but regressed with a move to Double-A this past year (5.1 BB/9) while not racking up a ton of strikeouts. He does miss bats with his slider (37 percent miss rate) and he can run his fastball up to 96 mph, relying on a lot of ground-ball contact (61 percent).

Sean Sullivan, LHP (No. 20): A quintessential pitchability lefty, Sullivan is one of a handful of Fall League participants with big league experience, having made his debut in June. He then spent two months on the injured list due to a shoulder impingement, returning for a few September outings with Triple-A Albuquerque, so he’s making up for some lost innings. His changeup is still his best pitch and his other offerings are fringy, so he needs to rediscover the plus command he didn’t have for most of the 2026 season.

Stu Flesland III, LHP: An 11th-round senior sign in 2023, Flesland has served as a bit of a swingman throughout his pro career, with 30 starts to go along with 60 relief appearances. The 6-foot-5 lefty pitched at three levels this past season, spending most of the season -- and throwing particularly well -- at Double-A (1.88 ERA, .209 BAA) over 86 IP. Now 26, Flesland gets outs with a fringy fastball that tops out at 93 mph, an effective upper-70s slider and low-80s changeup.

Hunter Mann, RHP: Mann joined the Rockies as a 14th-round pick in 2023 and has pitched exclusively as a reliever. He began the year finishing games for High-A Spokane, earning an August promotion to Double-A Hartford. He offers premium velocity, touching as high as 99 mph this past season, to go along with a mid-80s slider and splitter, missing enough bats to compile a 10.1 K/9 rate in 2026. He’s Rule 5-eligible this offseason.